Package vs Product Weight

  • Resolved forkmedia

    (@forkmedia)


    9 years, 10 months ago

    I have mostly lightweight products between 1 and 2 ounces in weight. The boxes the products are shipped in are either 3.7 ounces for small items or 7.2 ounces for large items (though the large items are large in size only – they are very lightweight). I have been setting the actual weights for each product on the individual product page.

    In the US, First Class Mail packages can only be a maximum of 13 ounces. After that, the Priority Mail rates kick in. The problem I’m encountering is that if I have 6 lightweight items (say 1 ounce each in this example), the plugin calculates the weight based on quantity of product (6 x 1 ounce = 6 ounces) but doesn’t include a place to calculate the weight of the box. So the customer is still offered First Class Shipping for six 1-ounce items, which when added to the box weight of 7.2, is over the 13 ounce First Class limit.

    For smaller quantities in either box, I have been adding a handling fee, which covers my cost, but that doesn’t help when the weight exceeds 13 ounces.

    If I make the first product in the large box equal the weight of the product and the box (putting that weight into the product page’s weight field), it’s makes the shipping price in First Class too high when I add a second product to the same box – the box price is doubled.

    Is there any way to add a package shipping weight for each product separately?

    I looked at classes but not sure how to make that work in this scenario.

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/weight-based-shipping-for-woocommerce/

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • Did you ever figure this out? I have the exact same issue.

    I did figure out a work-around, so I’ll share.

    For each item, enter it’s true weight.

    Then, in the Weight Based Shipping Table, set up different configurations for each TOTAL weight of the shipment. Use the MIN WEIGHT and MAX WEIGHT to control which weight each configuration controls. BUT, subtract the package weight from these numbers.

    Here’s how mine is set up:

    My first category is USPS FIRST CLASS
    1st class shipping is up through 13 ounces.
    My 1st class package weight is 1.2 ounces.
    13 ounces – 1.2 ounces = 11.8 ounces (maximum product weight). Dividing this into 16 ounces per pound comes to .7375 pounds (rounded down to .73)
    My first category has a minimum weight of zero and a maximum of .73.

    For anything above 13 ounces, I’m using USPS Priority Mail, which is priced by pound or fraction thereof.

    My priority shipping package weight is 10 ounces.
    Since the first category will be over 13 ounces but less than 2 pounds, I took 31 ounces (1 ounce less than 2 pounds) and subtracted my package weight of 10 ounces = 21 ounces.
    21 ounces divided by 16 ounces per pound comes to 1.3125 (rounded down to 1.31).
    My 2nd category is USPS PRIORITY MAIL (13.1-31 ounces) NOTE: I don’t display the part in parenthesis, that’s just for me – all the customer sees is USPS PRIORITY MAIL.
    The MIN WEIGHT is .7301 (just a hair over the max of the prior category) and the MAX WEIGHT is 1.31.

    I continue in this fashion for 7 categories. Since I give free shipping at $50, I don’t need to go any further.

    One thing to note is that Priority Mail rates vary based on the distance to the destination. I’m on the east coast, so the farther west I ship, the more it costs. For the table, I took a center number of about 1000 miles and marked it up a little bit for the rates. I figure that it will average out.

    I hope this helps.

    Thread Starter forkmedia

    (@forkmedia)

    Thanks for the great work-around explanation.

    Unfortunately I never got a reply from the developer of this plugin so I ended up with the Woocommerce USPS plug in. I can enter various box sizes and individual product weights and dimensions in the backend, and it calculates what will fit in what box or boxes and then grabs up-to-date USPS rates directly, also calculating the various US distance rates. It handles 1st Class, Priority and Express. It works for most foreign countries as well. You can also add extra fees per shipment that the customer doesn’t see as “extra” (I use that for Endicia’s insurance fees for overseas shipments).

    So far its been surprisingly accurate. YMMV.

    Is the plug-in you mention the paid one ($79, I think) or did you find a free one?

    I’m selling inventory from a closed store, at wholesale prices – I was hoping not to spend any additional money.

    Randy

    Thread Starter forkmedia

    (@forkmedia)

    Yes, it’s a paid plugin. Don’t remember the price but that sounds about right.

    I agree, you probably wouldn’t want to spend that amount in your situation.

    Good luck liquidating.

    Plugin Author Dan

    (@dangoodman)

    Hi guys,

    I’m really sorry about not answering. I have never received a notification about this topic from wp.org alerts.

    Thank you for sharing a work-around.

    Hello All,

    Thank you Brand Shark for your work around but I’m not really understanding it.

    maybe I should explain my scenario.

    So I do free shipping in the US so I dont have to deal with this but international is what i’m concerned with.

    if it’s under 13 Oz I can ship it first class and charge 15 for shipping

    if it’s over that i have to put it in an international express bag which is 26 so over 13 i want shipping to to be 25.

    When i did a test I added two products one was .25 lbs and another was a 1 lb when i went too checkout it gave me the option of either 15 or 25 .

    How do i set it up so that if the combined weight for all the products (for international) are under 13 Oz is $15 and over 13 Oz is $25

    Name Countries Weight Handling Fee Shipping Rate Weight Step Status Actions
    First Class International All except US 0 — 0.81 15 0 – Enabled Duplicate Delete
    Bulk Express International All except US 0.82 — 2 25 0 – Enabled Duplicate Delete

    Please try to dumb it down when trying to explain it to me ??

    Thanks

    Plugin Author Dan

    (@dangoodman)

    Hi,

    Given the configuration you’ve pasted it should give you one shipping option at a time. 15 for orders up to 0.81 lb (13 oz), 25 for bigger ones. Isn’t that what you currently see?

    Disregard, International shipping was enabled as well.

    Thanks

    Thread Starter forkmedia

    (@forkmedia)

    You mentioned shipping first class international and “if it’s under 13 ounces.”

    We don’t do a lot of international shipping but the USPS rate charts for first class do not use the 13 ounce cut off. I just checked rates to Great Britain and also to Austria and the first class rate covers packages up to 64 ounces. There are price changes every four ounces after 8 ounces.

    The 13 ounce cut off for USPS first class does apply to shipping WITHIN the US.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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